This application relates in general to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for providing a user interface control for selecting one or more options from a larger set of options, and more particularly to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for providing a user interface control for selecting one or more options from a larger set of options where each of the options may have a set of one or more user selectable properties.
The increasing capability of computing system has routinely permitted program developers to attempt to add an ever-increasing number of features and options to application programs. Each of these features and options requires a user of the application program to interact with the application program to configure and use these features and options. As such, a user interface control has been needed to present users with a large number of control objects that may be selected. In addition, each of these control objects may individually have properties and settings that a user may wish to manipulate in order to achieve a desired result.
In the past, user interface controls have been constructed using dialog boxes that appeared when a user makes a selection of a control. Typically, a control was selected using function keys, drop-down menus, and right-mouse clicks on an object within a main application window. This selection operation caused a large dialog box or window to be presented to the user in which a control setting or property could be changed. Once a user has made a selection by either clicking upon a setting or highlighting a setting an clicking upon an xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cDONExe2x80x9d button, the dialog box would disappear and the new setting or property would be applied to the appropriate object within the main application window.
This process is not an efficient use of a user""s efforts in that a dialog box is presented and removed repeatedly if a user wishes to examine a plurality of possible choices while deciding which setting is actually desired. In addition, many selections themselves possess selectable properties that may need manipulation for a user to arrive at a desired set of properties to achieve the desired result. In the past, these additional properties would be controlled using a second, or settings, dialog boy which is launched using a button located upon the first, or main, dialog box. A user would need to navigate through these multiple levels of dialog boxes and windows to set a control to be active and configured as desired.
With the opening of these dialog boxes, the main application window is typically obscured by the dialog box and the settings dialog box launched from the main dialog box. The screen is redrawn when the various dialog boxes are closed and the new control settings are applied. The above sequence of operations typically breaks the flow of a user as he or she interacts with a main application window which typically maintains the items of interest. The user will need to focus on these controls and dialog boxes, and not the main application window, and when the boxes are gone, refocus upon the main application window and any changes made by the application of the new control settings.
A new user interface control gallery addresses the limitations of the prior design for controls using dialog boxes by providing a user-selectable set of gallery control objects within a separate gallery control window.
In accordance with the present invention the above and other problems are solved by providing a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for providing a user interface control for selecting one or more options from larger set of options where each of the options has a set of one or more user selectable properties.
One such aspect of the present invention is a method for providing a user interface control to act on one or more items from a list in a variety of ways. The method renders a list of control objects, each of which comprise a graphical icon having a selection portion and a properties portion and one or more control properties. The method also receives a selection mouse click upon a selection portion of the first control object, and applies the control properties of the first control object.
Another aspect of the present invention is a computing system for providing a user interface control to modify properties of items within a main application window. The computing system has a main application window, a gallery control window, a control object selection processing module, and a control object focus processing module. The main application window contains one or more application items, each application item having one or more control properties affecting a behavior of the application item. The gallery control window contains a list of one or more control objects for modifying control properties of the application items located within the main application window. Each of the control objects in the list of control objects comprise a graphical icon having a selection portion and a properties portion and one or more control properties that affect one or more items within the main application window. The control object selection processing module for modifying one or more application items within the main application window based upon current values of control properties of a selected control object selected using a mouse click located upon a selection portion of the selected control object. The control object focus processing module for modifying current values of control properties of a focus control object identified using a mouse click located upon a properties portion of the focus control object.
These and various other features as well as advantages, which characterize the present invention, will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings.